


Here Where We Stand

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (2011), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-02
Updated: 2012-07-02
Packaged: 2017-11-09 01:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/449923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve helps Bucky acclimate to the modern day era.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here Where We Stand

James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky Barnes. Best friend to Steve Rogers.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

They both know what it’s like to be frozen and to have absolutely no say in their movements. Right now, it feels like that again.

Steve doesn’t know if he can step forward. Doesn’t know if it’ll feel the same. In the end, he isn’t even sure if this is his Bucky. The Bucky he left behind. The Bucky who fell right in front of him.

The Bucky he – can’t quite put to words.

They’re the same, Steve realizes, 70 years or not, when Bucky touches his cheek and kisses him hard on the mouth.

-

“I don’t get it.” Bucky’s voice is blank and his eyes seem passive as he stands on the sidewalk, watching the cars speed by. “Everything’s so…loud.”

Steve nods; he knows exactly what Bucky means. It’s jarring to experience the rush of sound from every direction that comes with standing in a busy city. New York is especially bad, though now Steve’s experienced Chicago and Las Vegas and he knows that it still gets worse. Cars feel like their own entities, not at all driven by people, and though they move much quieter than in the past, they honk more often and there are so many that the rumbling can become nearly unbearable.

Bucky reaches out and takes Steve’s hand. That’s also somewhat of a surprise, the action seemingly so simple – maybe Steve reads into it too much, but he squeezes Bucky’s hand in reassurance. “What do all the lights mean…?”

“Advertisements, mostly. They still sell Coke, you know.” Steve glances over at Bucky, who looks small for once. Maybe Steve just too vividly remembers being small himself; but now Bucky looks closed in on himself, wary of everything around him. Someone steps around them on the street mumbling “Excuse me,” and he shuffles closer to Steve, shoving a hand in his pocket.

Steve takes the initiative and releases Bucky’s hand, winding his arm instead around his waist. The action is comforting, and strangely seems to set them both at ease. No one really bats an eye at them, everyone too focused on their own issues and circumstances.

Steve isn’t sure if it’s a good idea or not, but Bucky tilts his head and looks up at him, so maybe.

Steve kisses him on the middle of the sidewalk. Bucky’s mouth opens, though there’s only a trace of tongue for a slow moment. Steve can feel his heart pounding, how it sends blood through his body, rushing to his head and his fingers; he rests his hand on the side of Bucky’s mouth and pushes the kiss on further, feels Bucky’s steady hand on his chest, right above his rib cage, pushing back just as eagerly.

When they separate the city seems hushed; but people walk by as normal, no one assimilated around them, no one staring. They’re just two people standing in the middle of New York, maybe getting in the way of a few distracted passing folk. Bucky’s fingers clench in Steve’s jacket. “I don’t know if I can do this,” he whispers, and then his mouth moves to rest on Steve’s throat. “I don’t know if I can live like this.”

Steve’s fingers follow suit in gripping Bucky’s hair carefully, keeping him close.

“I’m here.”

There’s a long moment of near silence.

“I know.”


End file.
